1/48 Tamiya F-16C Block 40

by Stephen Prior

--------------------

 

I won't go into the history of the F-16 as I'm pretty sure everyone knows all about it. Tamiya entered the 1/48 Viper market a couple of years ago with the Block 50 kit which superseded every other kit as the F-16 kit of choice in this scale.  Having built the Block 50 version when it was first released, I decided to make the next one a Block40 which  differs mainly from the Block 50 by using a different HUD, wheels (depending on timeframe) and having external fuselage strengthening plates. There's quite a wide variety of aftermarket correction and detail sets available for this kit and I used a few of them along with some scratchbuilt detail of my own.

Click on images below to see larger images

  

  

  

The WAR HUD as it's known is quite distinctively shaped and mine came from master modeller and aftermarket guy DrPepper who came out with a nicely detailed resin HUD which is quite easy to use.  The fuselage strengthening plates are from a Korean company called Crossdelta, they're etched with adhesive backing and went down a treat on the kit.  To change the wheels I used Royale Resin aftermarket wheels which are nicely detailed and designed for the Tamiya Viper.  The decals for the 51FW's 36FS were also Crossdelta and are some of the nicest decals I've used with full colour instructions and printed by Cartograf.  The intake FOD cover was made from kitchen foil and the decal was from the sheet to add a little colour.  Paints used were Xtracrylix, Tamiya and Vallejo sprayed by my Aztek 470.

The latest Tamiya boxing provides the option to build any USAF F-16C variant from Block25-52, but I'm more than happy with my final result and I have several more kits to be built

WAR HUD available from  http://www.drpepperresins.com/

Wheels for the F-16 from http://www.royaleresin.net/aircraft.html

Crossdelta available from http://www.spruebrothers.com/

Stephen Prior

Photos and text © by Stephen Prior